Exploring consumer’s interest in buying behavior at social commerce platforms: Amidst ethical concerns
(A2019-4502)

AUTHORS

Waqar Nadeem, Oulu Business School; Nick Hajli, Swansea University

KEYWORDS

Social commerce; ethics; interest

ABSTRACT

Exponential growth of social networking sites (SNSs) has led to a surge in ethical issues surrounding these platforms. People are spending time in SNSs and SCPs (social commerce platforms) but they hesitate to rely on these platforms due to ethical concerns in making transactions. With regards to the deficiencies in the current literature, the current study seeks to address if mere consumer’s interest to buy through SCPs influences consumer’s use and purchase intentions at SCPs, taking into consideration the role of ethical concerns. Data has been collected from n=406 consumers and Amos version 24. has been employed to analyze the data. Results reveal that consumers’ perceptions of privacy and security play a crucial role resulting in an ethical environment, which in turn enhances consumers’ trust, use, and purchase intentions at SCPs. A rivaling finding was that consumer’s trust at SCPs was found not to influence the use and purchase intentions.